MadgesdiqCEG's Registry

Why do you want to document your birth story?

Birth education generally begins when you find out you’re expecting - and 9 months (really less) is a short amount of time to study anything. In general, it’s common sense to study for or have some awareness on the subject of something before beginning an experience. Also, so much focus of birth education lies around care for the baby, and I want to show and share the importance of community support, father support, and self-care for the mother during the entire process, including the significance of the 40 days following birth and the entire fourth trimester.

I am building a website that will be a resource for all of the options available and would like to feature this story, as well as make it available for other birth workers and educators to purchase as a resource for their communities.

While training as a birth attendant and building the resource list, I’ve been inspired by the documented stories of Dona Maria (6) and more. Thank These are incredible stories, but more relatable / interesting for those deeply interested in birth overall.

As the great basketball player Mamoud Abdul-Rauf once said on the podcast “All The Smoke,” “There is power in telling your story” and I wish to share our birth story as a creative contribution to re-normalizing the option for home birth with healthy, low-risk pregnancies. While this specific journey/story seems radically A-typical, many of the other things about me are extremely relatable to various beings who might not otherwise come across a traditional home birth story. This especially includes women of color in urban US communities and it is my goal to share this with as many as possible before they experience their first or next pregnancy and birth.

After documenting our story, we will use the various situations that arise as the basis for discussion with international birth professionals as additional/material. Relevant bits of these conversations will be included in the documentary and the full conversations will be available as a resource on the website in both vlog and blog formats.

What does your “traditional home birth using the ocean waters to assist in labor” look like?

Birth is inevitably unpredictable. Pregnancy and labor are ultimate practices in going with your own intuitive flow. We love the natural lifestyle of Costa Rica - the fresh organic fruit, warm sunny weather & swimmable ocean water. Costa Rica also has a much more reasonable livability which allows for more ease during a time of family rest and bonding.

The plan is to arrive in Costa Rica around 35 weeks, get settled and check in with our Midwifery, MamaSol. We will host a couples wellness retreat from April 30th - May 8th. We will then travel by car over a few days from the Pacific Coast side to the Caribbean side, stopping for a slow hike to meet the Cabecar Indigenous Community with whom our friend Anna’s non-profit Rise In Resiliency & our Midwifery, MamaSol both work with. Arriving at our airbnb on the Caribbean side sometime around Mother’s Day May 14th, we’ll get settled in and prepare for Nebiyah’s arrival. What a blessing it will be to spend the final weeks walking under the sun to a naturally organic fruit stand and picking out whatever feels good to the soul, stretching and wading in the warm Caribbean waters, taking the weight off whenever feels good to the body, and meditating in the jungle to open, expand and clear the mind in preparation for Nebiyah Rose to enter this world.

MamaSol Midwifery will do a prenatal check upon arrival & be on-call from 37 weeks on + come for two postpartum visits. FoineLeFem will come from Delaware to complete a traditional moroccan postpartum closing ceremony and provide check-in/care-taking services for us. Overall her services will include:

Prenatal Education
* 2 prenatal meetings as you reach 36 weeks
* Herbal education & products soreness, perineal tears, womb recovery and nourishment
* Information on the best practices for proper postpartum recovery based on Traditional Moroccan and Malaysian Techniques

Postpartum Education
* Postpartum Handbook
* Breastfeeding handbook
* Bonus Purchase womb recovery herbs at a discount
* Womb Steam Blend
* Postpartum Recovery tea
* Breastfeeding Tea
* Nipples salve

And Postpartum Rituals
* Traditional Hammam Bath
* Traditional Closing of the bones ceremony
* Traditional Womb Steam
* Traditional Belly binding in the Moroccan or Malaysian technique (material will be provided)
* Nourishment with warming foods that promote healing and recovery
* Postpartum Celebration of the New mother

Learn more at https://www.foienlafemme.com/postpartum-support-1

Plan For The Birth

Peace Family!
Your gifts here will help us travel to Costa Rica where God has put on our hearts to plan for a traditional natural birth + pay for birth attendants & post-partum care.

She will be breast fed until 2-4 years (so only a few bottle stuff needed for emergencies)

We will practice Natural Infant Hygiene from the start (so we only need a few pre-folds / cloth diapers for practice/travel are needed)

We will also be mainly skin-to-skin with her for the first 40 days + so not many (or anymore) early size clothes are needed either!

We are so appreciative for your love & support as we prepare to receive Nebiyah Rose

Oneness & Love, MadgesdiqCEG
aka Antoine Stoudamire & Claire Heacock